Maple Leaf Square, 55 & 65 Bremner Blvd: Living Above the Arena Crowd

Maple Leaf Square is the building I suggest to buyers who want the most convenient address in downtown Toronto and do not mind sharing it with a sold-out arena crowd on game night. Two towers with 872 suites sit on a podium that holds a hotel, offices, a large Longo’s and a sports bar, right beside Scotiabank Arena. It is a very easy place to live and a very busy one, and both are worth understanding. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A building that is half condo, half precinct

Maple Leaf Square is less a condo building than a piece of the city. The podium holds the Le Germain hotel, about 200,000 square feet of offices and more than 100,000 square feet of retail, including a roughly 40,000 square foot Longo’s supermarket and the Real Sports Bar and Grill. KPMB says the podium also includes a daycare, and its roof is landscaped into courtyards and terraces for the hotel, the daycare and residents.

The design came from a partnership of Lanterra, MLSE and Cadillac Fairview, which explains why it sits so tightly against the arena. KPMB designed two slender towers over a podium wrapped in fritted glass, with large signage visible from the Gardiner. The complex won the 2006 Community of the Year award from the Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association.

For a resident, the practical result is a grocery store, a hotel bar, restaurants and offices under the same roof. Few buildings in Toronto offer that much daily convenience without stepping outside.

Two towers, and some numbers that do not agree

The two residential towers are addressed at 55 and 65 Bremner Boulevard, and both share one condominium corporation, TSCC-2130. Lanterra describes them as 44 and 40 storeys above the podium. Lanterra puts that podium at nine storeys, UrbanToronto’s database says ten, and it lists the taller tower at 54 storeys and about 186 metres overall. Condos.ca lists 49 floors.

Those figures are counting different things, mostly whether the podium floors are included. When you look at a listing, the floor number matters more than the storey count, because the lower residential floors sit just above the busy podium roof while the upper floors clear it entirely.

Lanterra and UrbanToronto list the hotel at about 170 rooms. That makes it a real neighbour sharing the podium, not just a name on the building, and it means hotel guests, office workers and shoppers move through the complex every day alongside residents.

Suites, exposures and the arena next door

Condos.ca puts the suite range at about 400 to 2,125 sq ft. Current listings are dominated by one-bedrooms and one-plus-dens under 700 sq ft, with two-bedrooms around 700 to 800 sq ft. That is a classic downtown investor mix, and it shows in the number of suites for lease at any time.

Exposure makes a big difference here. Suites looking south and west see toward the lake and the Rogers Centre, while those facing north look into the Financial District towers at closer range. Suites on the arena side get the energy of game nights and concerts directly below.

Studio Munge designed the interiors at the time. After fifteen years, the condition of a suite depends on its owner, and tenant-occupied suites in particular may need updating.

Daily life in South Core

The location could hardly be more central. The Financial District, the waterfront and the arena are all within an easy walk, and the transit details are in the data panel on this page. Many owners here never need a car.

The trade-off is crowds. On game nights and before concerts, Bremner Boulevard and the plaza fill with crowds, and getting in and out by car can be slow. If you want a quiet evening routine, this is not the building for you.

South Core has filled in around the building over the last decade with new office and condo towers. That has brought more restaurants and services, but also more competition for tenants and resale buyers. A suite here has to be well kept and fairly priced to stand out against newer stock nearby.

The mechanical side is also part of the story. UrbanToronto lists Enwave, the downtown district energy provider, among the project’s heating and cooling partners. Ask management how the building’s heating and cooling are supplied and what that contract costs, because it feeds directly into the fee.

What Maple Leaf Square costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $963 per square foot. That is in line with the newer South Core towers around it, and the location beside the arena and over a supermarket supports it.

There is plenty of supply. Eleven suites were for sale and fourteen for lease when I checked. Asking prices ran from about $499,000 up to about $699,000 for one-plus-den and two-bedroom plans, with fees on those listings from roughly $522 to $969 a month.

Condos.ca lists heat, air conditioning, water, building insurance and common elements as included, so the fee covers your heating and cooling but not hydro or parking. Across current listings it works out to about $1.31 per square foot, which is on the high side for a building of this size. A complex podium, shared systems with the hotel and offices, and a large staff all cost money.

With so many listings, buyers have choice and room to negotiate on the right suite. If you want comparables for a specific plan or floor, I can pull them through my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Maple Leaf Square

The amenity spaces inside the condo are practical rather than lavish, with concierge, a party room, a meeting room and a business centre. The real amenities are in the podium: a full grocery store, a hotel, restaurants and the arena, all reached without crossing a street.

Jatin’s honest take on Maple Leaf Square

Maple Leaf Square — frequently asked questions

Looking at St. Lawrence, the Financial District and Downtown Yonge more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.